Latest / Martin Animations / 6 TRUE ALONE HORROR STORIES ANIMATED

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6 TRUE ALONE HORROR STORIES ANIMATED · Martin Animations

0:01
Speaker 1: A couple years ago, my husband and I took a
0:03
Speaker 1: trip to Yosemite. We stayed outside the park in El Portal.
0:08
Speaker 1: One evening while we were driving back from the valley,
0:11
Speaker 1: I noticed that the headlights caught what appeared to be
0:13
Speaker 1: somebody laying down on the side of the road. Both
0:17
Speaker 1: feet pointed towards the street. I told my husband that
0:21
Speaker 1: there was a person laying in the pitch black on
0:23
Speaker 1: the side of the highway. He knows I love my
0:26
Speaker 1: true crime. and was absolutely certain that what I had
0:30
Speaker 1: seen was just trash bags. I was so certain. I
0:35
Speaker 1: just kept saying, No, I saw a body. I know
0:39
Speaker 1: it was a person. We made our way back to
0:42
Speaker 1: the hotel, and as we were about to park, my
0:45
Speaker 1: husband looked over at me and said, You're really sure
0:48
Speaker 1: about this, aren't you? You want to go back? I
0:52
Speaker 1: was desperate. Yes. As we drove by again, I saw
0:57
Speaker 1: the feet. I had my husband turn the car back
0:59
Speaker 1: around and yelled at him to stop the car. He
1:03
Speaker 1: rolled down his window and said, Hey, are you okay?
1:08
Speaker 1: No answer. One more time, even louder. Hey, are you okay? Suddenly,
1:16
Speaker 1: the woman, dressed in all black, sat up. She was
1:20
Speaker 1: wearing a nice down jacket, black pants, and had her
1:24
Speaker 1: purse and three water bottles. Her makeup was done nicely
1:28
Speaker 1: and she seemed very sweet. I could tell my husband
1:32
Speaker 1: was absolutely shocked. I asked her where she was headed.
1:37
Speaker 1: She said that she was trying to get to the
1:39
Speaker 1: Chevron station up the road and that her mom was
1:41
Speaker 1: going to meet her there to pick her up. This
1:44
Speaker 1: woman looked to be in her late 40s. I knew
1:47
Speaker 1: something weird was going on because where we found her,
1:50
Speaker 1: the Chevron station was still another 7 miles away or so.
1:56
Speaker 1: She said in her mind she thought it was only
1:58
Speaker 1: about a mile from her hotel and she could walk it.
2:02
Speaker 1: We offered her a ride and she climbed into the
2:04
Speaker 1: back seat, not before I grabbed a thick scarf to
2:08
Speaker 1: wrap around my neck in pepper spray. As we drove,
2:12
Speaker 1: we tried to ask her questions, just chit-chat. I asked
2:17
Speaker 1: why she was laying on the side of the road.
2:19
Speaker 1: She said she had gotten tired of walking and just
2:22
Speaker 1: decided to lay down. ready to give up, whatever that means.
2:28
Speaker 1: It was winter and she had no hat or gloves on.
2:32
Speaker 1: I could tell she was very fragile. Once we arrived
2:36
Speaker 1: at the Chevron station, she thanked us, got out of
2:39
Speaker 1: the car and sat on a bench in front of
2:41
Speaker 1: the closed Chevron station store. We offered to stay with
2:45
Speaker 1: her until her mom arrived, but she declined and said
2:49
Speaker 1: she would be fine. I reminded her that there was
2:52
Speaker 1: no cell reception in the area, and triple-checked that she
2:56
Speaker 1: didn't want us to wait with her. We drove back
2:59
Speaker 1: to our hotel and noticed that there were now two
3:02
Speaker 1: police cars in the parking lot. They had not been
3:05
Speaker 1: there the first time we arrived back from the valley
3:07
Speaker 1: that evening. I told my husband I knew that they
3:11
Speaker 1: had to be there for that woman. I calmly walked
3:14
Speaker 1: over to one of the cars and asked if they
3:16
Speaker 1: were looking for a missing person, a woman. The officer
3:20
Speaker 1: told me that they were and asked if I had
3:23
Speaker 1: seen her. I explained the situation and that I really
3:27
Speaker 1: felt like the woman had something very bad happen to her.
3:32
Speaker 1: He thanked us for picking her up and giving her
3:34
Speaker 1: a ride. He couldn't tell me what had happened but
3:37
Speaker 1: thought her leaving and going somewhere else was a smart choice.
3:41
Speaker 1: I asked that he go check on her at the
3:43
Speaker 1: Chevron station just to make sure she was okay and
3:46
Speaker 1: that her mom did eventually arrive. I'm realizing that whatever
3:51
Speaker 1: happened was at the same hotel that we were at
3:56
Speaker 1: That evening I looked up the local police log and
3:58
Speaker 1: found that a domestic violence dispute had broken out at
4:01
Speaker 1: the hotel. The woman had been beaten very badly, and
4:06
Speaker 1: she was so terrified that she was willing to walk
4:09
Speaker 1: in the dark without a flashlight just to escape. It's
4:13
Speaker 1: my guess that after walking about a half mile from
4:15
Speaker 1: the hotel, she was in so much pain that she
4:19
Speaker 1: just needed to lay down. I got the feeling like
4:23
Speaker 1: she thought she may actually die there. She couldn't go
4:26
Speaker 1: back to the hotel because she had already escaped and
4:29
Speaker 1: gone to the front desk to call her mom. Her
4:32
Speaker 1: husband knew she had been there and would have come
4:35
Speaker 1: after her. The front office called the police for her
4:39
Speaker 1: while she escaped. It's my understanding that the man who
4:43
Speaker 1: hurt her was her husband and was arrested. I always
4:48
Speaker 1: wondered about her and whether she went back to him.
4:51
Speaker 1: Did her mom ever pick her up? Is she safe?
4:55
Speaker 1: Now my husband listens when I say, there's a body
5:00
Speaker 1: on the side of the road. At the time of
5:06
Speaker 1: this incident, I was 29 and my daughter was 3.
5:10
Speaker 1: I was in my bathroom bathing her and kept hearing
5:12
Speaker 1: a sound that seemed to be coming from the direction
5:15
Speaker 1: of my bedroom window. I wasn't concerned with this sound
5:19
Speaker 1: at first because I live in an apartment complex on
5:21
Speaker 1: the ground level And people, especially kids, walk by the
5:26
Speaker 1: window in the mulch all the time. So, I continued
5:30
Speaker 1: to bathe my daughter when the sound moved from my
5:32
Speaker 1: bedroom window to my daughter's. Now I noticed the sound shift.
5:38
Speaker 1: And so did my small dog. She's typically the quiet
5:42
Speaker 1: type as she's 12 years old. The sound was almost
5:46
Speaker 1: as if there was someone tapping a metal object against
5:48
Speaker 1: the glass. Alert at this point, my dog lets out
5:52
Speaker 1: this ear-piercing bark, one I have never heard from her before.
5:58
Speaker 1: Feeling on guard now, I removed my daughter from the
6:01
Speaker 1: tub and wrapped her in her towel and told her
6:04
Speaker 1: to stay in the bathroom as I proceeded to the
6:06
Speaker 1: kitchen and grabbed a knife. Fight or flight at this
6:11
Speaker 1: point is kicking in as my dog recedes from the
6:13
Speaker 1: direction of my daughter's room. I approach it. Entering the doorway,
6:18
Speaker 1: I begin hearing in a sing-song, low, guttery voice.
6:22
Speaker 2: I'm here to play with a very pretty lady, a
6:27
Speaker 2: lady that I know, a lady that I see, a
6:32
Speaker 2: lady that I often see in my dream.
6:38
Speaker 1: Absolutely beside myself at this point, and my fight-or-flight sense
6:42
Speaker 1: is always in fight mode, I reached the window and
6:45
Speaker 1: drew open the curtains. As the voice kept singing the
6:49
Speaker 1: song and the tapping sound kept repeating on the window,
6:53
Speaker 1: I snatched the blind string and opened the blinds quickly
6:56
Speaker 1: just to come face to face with an old man
7:00
Speaker 1: bearing a long and dirty beard with eyes that sunk
7:03
Speaker 1: into his head and dark as the night was. He
7:07
Speaker 1: looked at me and grinned, a grin that I can
7:10
Speaker 1: only describe as the one the Grinch wore when he
7:13
Speaker 1: devised his plan. Stuck in a shocked panic for what
7:18
Speaker 1: seemed like an eternity, but was probably no more than
7:20
Speaker 1: a second or two, I began to spring into action.
7:24
Speaker 1: I turned, jetted into the bathroom and grabbed my daughter
7:27
Speaker 1: and my cell phone. I ran to my front door,
7:30
Speaker 1: still holding the knife, just in case the man happened
7:33
Speaker 1: to run towards my door. I was dialing the police
7:37
Speaker 1: and on the phone with the dispatcher as I ran
7:39
Speaker 1: out of my door and to my neighbor's house. I
7:42
Speaker 1: proceeded to bang on her door with as much force
7:44
Speaker 1: as possible to get her attention. I wanted my child
7:48
Speaker 1: safe at least. She flung open her door, upset of course,
7:53
Speaker 1: until she saw the terror on my face. As I
7:56
Speaker 1: handed her my daughter and began to force myself into
7:59
Speaker 1: her apartment, the old man came running around the corner
8:02
Speaker 1: and into the breezeway, lunging straight for me with a
8:05
Speaker 1: knife of his own. I managed to get my neighbor,
8:09
Speaker 1: her three kids, and my daughter into the door as
8:11
Speaker 1: this maniac arrived within arm's length of me. Slamming the door,
8:16
Speaker 1: I told her to take the kids and get into
8:17
Speaker 1: the bathroom because that's the only room in the apartment
8:20
Speaker 1: that the door locks and that there's no window. The
8:24
Speaker 1: old man was now banging and kicking her door as
8:27
Speaker 1: well as dragging the knife down it. I stayed at
8:30
Speaker 1: the door to ensure that he did not make his
8:32
Speaker 1: way inside, and as I'm sitting on the floor, my
8:35
Speaker 1: feet pushed up against the coat closet base and my
8:38
Speaker 1: back firmly against the door. I heard a booming voice.
8:43
Speaker 1: Drop your weapon and get on the ground, now! I
8:47
Speaker 1: sat listening as the sounds of a tussle came from
8:49
Speaker 1: the breezeway. Then, boom, boom, boom. You can open the door, ma'am.
8:56
Speaker 1: It's the police. Relieved, I eased open the door in
9:00
Speaker 1: time enough to see the one officer exiting the breezeway
9:03
Speaker 1: with the man, and another asking me if I was okay,
9:07
Speaker 1: and if I could answer a few questions. I spent
9:10
Speaker 1: about 15 minutes explaining the situation to him, as he
9:13
Speaker 1: jotted down the notes on his pad. The other officer
9:17
Speaker 1: then approached us with two window screens, as the old
9:20
Speaker 1: man had taken the one off my window and my
9:23
Speaker 1: daughter's in an attempt to get inside. The approaching officer
9:27
Speaker 1: asked me if I recognized the man, and I told
9:30
Speaker 1: him I have never seen him before in my life.
9:33
Speaker 1: This is when the officer looked at me and said
9:35
Speaker 1: that this man admitted having been following me for about
9:39
Speaker 1: a month. He first saw me at the grocery store,
9:43
Speaker 1: which is within walking distance from my apartment. Since then,
9:47
Speaker 1: he had watched and waited for the opportunity to try
9:50
Speaker 1: to get into my apartment to play with me, according
9:55
Speaker 1: to him. This man followed me for a month. And
10:00
Speaker 1: to make it even odder, I would tell my then-boyfriend
10:04
Speaker 1: that I felt at times as though I was being watched,
10:08
Speaker 1: and I was scared. The main thing I am thankful
10:11
Speaker 1: for is that I am the type of person who
10:13
Speaker 1: locks all the windows and doors, no matter how safe
10:17
Speaker 1: I feel. For a bit of context, after moving to
10:24
Speaker 1: a more rural area, I haven't been able to see
10:27
Speaker 1: my grandparents as much as I did when my family
10:30
Speaker 1: and I were living in the city. Because of that,
10:33
Speaker 1: once in a while they will take the long drive
10:35
Speaker 1: over here to stay for about a week or two.
10:38
Speaker 1: Last Monday, that is exactly what happened. My grandmother, grandfather,
10:43
Speaker 1: and uncle came to stay for a week. Now, my
10:47
Speaker 1: family and I own a German Shepherd dog named Kane.
10:51
Speaker 1: He is about two years old. And boy, is he hyper.
10:56
Speaker 1: Kane does not like anything coming onto our property or
10:59
Speaker 1: into our home. So he will bark for ages unless
11:03
Speaker 1: the thing leaves or we remove him from the situation.
11:07
Speaker 1: While my grandparents and uncle were here, he barked at
11:10
Speaker 1: each and every one of them through the glass storm
11:13
Speaker 1: door that's attached to our front door. And he would
11:16
Speaker 1: bark at my grandpa whenever he went to sit outside.
11:20
Speaker 1: One night, We had him inside in a dog crate
11:23
Speaker 1: because he comes inside to sleep sometimes. His crate was
11:27
Speaker 1: placed behind the couch and sitting at the edge of
11:30
Speaker 1: the couch was my uncle. And once Kane got a
11:33
Speaker 1: good sniff and realized that he wasn't one of us,
11:36
Speaker 1: he started barking. So we had to put a blanket
11:40
Speaker 1: over his crate. Now that you know how crazy our
11:43
Speaker 1: good boy is, here's the story. As I'm telling this,
11:48
Speaker 1: my grandparents and uncle just left about an hour ago
11:51
Speaker 1: and my uncle had quite a story to tell in
11:54
Speaker 1: the morning. Last night, Cain's crate was placed in my room, because, well,
12:00
Speaker 1: I wanted him in my room. Always having outside dogs
12:04
Speaker 1: throughout my childhood, I never got to have one of
12:07
Speaker 1: them sleep in my room with me, so I was
12:09
Speaker 1: quite excited about our upcoming sleepover. After getting the crate
12:13
Speaker 1: in my room and placing a blanket down for Cain,
12:16
Speaker 1: we brought him in from outside and into my room.
12:20
Speaker 1: And in the hallway outside of my room, there are
12:22
Speaker 1: two bathrooms on the wall to the left. I closed
12:25
Speaker 1: my door so Kane wouldn't see one of my grandparents
12:28
Speaker 1: or my uncle trying to go into the bathroom and
12:31
Speaker 1: start barking at them in the middle of the night.
12:34
Speaker 1: After reading and talking to Kane a bit, I turned
12:37
Speaker 1: off the lights and we both went to sleep. In
12:41
Speaker 1: the early hours of the morning, around 1 to 3 a.m.,
12:45
Speaker 1: my uncle got up from the couch to go use
12:46
Speaker 1: the bathroom on the other side of the house. We
12:49
Speaker 1: always have a small light on in the kitchen at night,
12:52
Speaker 1: so it isn't too dark. And I'm guessing that's how
12:55
Speaker 1: my uncle saw what he saw in the hallway. After
12:59
Speaker 1: walking from the living room and through the kitchen, he
13:02
Speaker 1: got to where the two bathrooms were. And sitting motionless
13:06
Speaker 1: in front of my bathroom door was what looked to
13:09
Speaker 1: be Kane. His mostly black fur almost blended in with
13:13
Speaker 1: the darkness, making it difficult to see his face. Ears
13:18
Speaker 1: straight up, not barking or growling, just staring, heavily unnerved.
13:25
Speaker 1: He turned around and walked back to the living room.
13:29
Speaker 1: A while later, my grandpa got up to use the bathroom,
13:32
Speaker 1: and lo and behold, nothing was there. My uncle was
13:36
Speaker 1: adamant that he did see Kane in that hallway. But
13:42
Speaker 1: Kane was in my room, inside of a locked cage
13:45
Speaker 1: and behind a closed door. And if he was merely
13:49
Speaker 1: seeing things due to being sleepy, the fear of the
13:52
Speaker 1: situation would have woken him up enough for his illusion
13:56
Speaker 1: of Cain sitting in the hallway to disappear. Sometimes I'll
14:00
Speaker 1: see a spider or multiple spiders on my wall while
14:04
Speaker 1: I'm half asleep. And once I blink or really look
14:08
Speaker 1: at it, they will disappear. But what my uncle saw didn't.
14:15
Speaker 1: So I believe that he did see something But it
14:19
Speaker 1: wasn't Cain. It was something trying to take the form
14:23
Speaker 1: of Cain. For what reason? I don't know. But the
14:28
Speaker 1: intentions of that potential entity, remaining unknown, make it all
14:34
Speaker 1: the more disturbing. I live in the UK, and a
14:40
Speaker 1: few years ago I sold up, took early retirement, bought
14:44
Speaker 1: a boat and dropped out to go on an adventure
14:46
Speaker 1: exploring the UK's inland waterways. I don't have a mooring
14:51
Speaker 1: through choice. The whole reason I bought a boat was
14:54
Speaker 1: to get out and explore. And doing this has taken
14:58
Speaker 1: me to some really interesting places I wouldn't have thought
15:01
Speaker 1: of visiting otherwise. I visited some urban and really lively
15:06
Speaker 1: areas like Liverpool, but also spent time out in the
15:09
Speaker 1: sticks away from everything else. in extremely rural and peaceful spots.
15:15
Speaker 1: It's pretty cool being able to choose your spot dependent
15:18
Speaker 1: on your mood, and if you don't like the area
15:21
Speaker 1: or don't like your neighbors, you can just throw your
15:24
Speaker 1: ropes and move. In the UK, the waterways license enables
15:29
Speaker 1: you to boat without having to take a formal marina
15:32
Speaker 1: berth provided you genuinely keep moving, with most mooring spots
15:36
Speaker 1: being free up to 14 days before you have to move.
15:41
Speaker 1: This is called constant cruising, and if you have a
15:44
Speaker 1: decent craft, well set up for off-grid living, it's an
15:48
Speaker 1: amazing way of life. Many people choose this way if
15:52
Speaker 1: they're not tied by their jobs or on an adventure
15:55
Speaker 1: like me, but there are many living on pretty shady,
15:59
Speaker 1: unlicensed boats out on the network because they can't afford
16:03
Speaker 1: anything else, and some with some issues that you would
16:07
Speaker 1: be best to give a wide berth to. I am
16:11
Speaker 1: a lone female boater with just my dog snorkeling spaniel
16:15
Speaker 1: and two cats as crew, so I follow lots of
16:18
Speaker 1: boating forums to keep an ear out for problem areas
16:21
Speaker 1: or people and try to be sensible with my safety
16:24
Speaker 1: and my choice of stopping points. It's been very rare
16:28
Speaker 1: that I've ever had any sort of issues in the
16:30
Speaker 1: years I've been doing this, but occasionally I'll find I've
16:34
Speaker 1: got little choice about where I have to stop or
16:37
Speaker 1: how long for. In the wintertime, I can often come
16:41
Speaker 1: across navigations closed due to flooding or broken infrastructure, like
16:47
Speaker 1: a broken lock stopping me in my tracks. In summer,
16:51
Speaker 1: it's not unheard of for a canal to run out
16:53
Speaker 1: of water and find myself unable to move until the
16:56
Speaker 1: level rises again. As I'm riding this, I'm stranded on
17:00
Speaker 1: a quarter-mile stretch of canal with river navigations at either end,
17:05
Speaker 1: closed due to flooding, and I've been stuck here for
17:08
Speaker 1: two months now. My cats like to go out, so
17:12
Speaker 1: I always try to moor away from roads and seek
17:15
Speaker 1: out spots where the cats would have an escape route
17:18
Speaker 1: from any pursuing dog, like a thick hedge or a
17:21
Speaker 1: fenced-off area of some kind. So I chose a spot
17:24
Speaker 1: right up at the end of this canal, alongside a
17:27
Speaker 1: derelict industrial area. There's a couple of gaps in the
17:31
Speaker 1: steel fencing a person can get through, and after checking
17:34
Speaker 1: it out to make sure it's reasonably safe, and finding
17:37
Speaker 1: mostly just piles of bricks and unusable but deteriorated roadway left.
17:42
Speaker 1: I've been in there regularly walking the dog, with the
17:45
Speaker 1: cats even trotting behind. Only once have I ever seen
17:49
Speaker 1: anyone else in there, and that was just another lady
17:52
Speaker 1: with her dog. My cats have discovered there's mice in there,
17:57
Speaker 1: and they're having way too much fun to come home
17:59
Speaker 1: as often as they usually do. so it's become a
18:02
Speaker 1: nightly ritual to have to go in with my head
18:05
Speaker 1: torch and dog and retrieve them before bed. They are
18:09
Speaker 1: both pretty great cats that think they're dogs, so if
18:12
Speaker 1: I go and shout for them, they'll come running and
18:15
Speaker 1: follow me all the way back. The first seven weeks
18:19
Speaker 1: went without incident, but a few nights ago, I was
18:22
Speaker 1: in there shouting for one of my cats when I
18:25
Speaker 1: heard what sounded like bricks being bashed together in very
18:29
Speaker 1: deliberate movements. even spaced multiples of three. My first thought
18:34
Speaker 1: was someone was hurt and maybe can't call out so
18:37
Speaker 1: they were trying to get my attention so I stopped
18:40
Speaker 1: and listened. Another three bashes came but this time nearer.
18:47
Speaker 1: Okay someone's moving and definitely not stuck so I pick
18:51
Speaker 1: up the pace and think that this is just weird.
18:55
Speaker 1: It's 11 p.m. and below zero with ice everywhere. There's
19:00
Speaker 1: no shelter, just piles of bricks, so why would anyone
19:05
Speaker 1: be in here? My cat comes bounding up at this point,
19:09
Speaker 1: so I just scoop her up and practically run back
19:12
Speaker 1: towards the fence. Another three bashes, the first one really
19:17
Speaker 1: loud and heavily emphasized, and again all very deliberate and
19:21
Speaker 1: evenly spaced, but this time, nearer again. I have moved
19:27
Speaker 1: quite a distance and turned a corner by this point,
19:31
Speaker 1: but the noise has followed and switched sides like they
19:35
Speaker 1: had cut the corner and almost caught up with me.
19:39
Speaker 1: I get us all through the fence and back on
19:41
Speaker 1: the boat, locking it all down. At first I don't
19:44
Speaker 1: hear anything, but my cats do, and they keep lifting
19:48
Speaker 1: their heads and alerting to something. outside. But then I
19:52
Speaker 1: do hear it. The fence is only about ten feet
19:55
Speaker 1: from my side of the boat, and I hear a
19:58
Speaker 1: growling coming from the other side. Loud growling. It was
20:04
Speaker 1: a god-awful sound, and I sat there scared witless, wondering
20:08
Speaker 1: what kind of freak would be doing that, and what
20:11
Speaker 1: they were going to do next. If you can imagine
20:14
Speaker 1: a human trying to mimic the sound of a slow
20:17
Speaker 1: revving motorbike, it kind of sounded like that, and this
20:21
Speaker 1: went on for nearly 10 minutes. I turned all my
20:25
Speaker 1: lights off in case they could see in, and sat
20:28
Speaker 1: awake for hours, too scared to sleep, and constantly watching
20:32
Speaker 1: my crew for any indication that they could hear anything.
20:36
Speaker 1: but there was nothing further, and I eventually fell asleep.
20:42
Speaker 1: Two days later, I was walking down the towpath and
20:45
Speaker 1: walked past a small rough-looking cruiser moored about 200 yards
20:49
Speaker 1: away from me. As I passed, I heard a man's
20:53
Speaker 1: voice mimicking me, calling my cat's name, like I had
20:58
Speaker 1: been that night before. I looked over and saw a
21:02
Speaker 1: really scruffy and dirty-looking man, I would say in his 30s,
21:07
Speaker 1: with dark hooded eyes and god-awful teeth, grinning at me.
21:12
Speaker 1: I have no doubt this was his way of telling
21:14
Speaker 1: me that it had been him that night, and he
21:18
Speaker 1: looked like he was now trying to freak me out
21:20
Speaker 1: even more. So I stopped for a second, and gave
21:24
Speaker 1: him my best defiant, I am not scared of you,
21:28
Speaker 1: and you would think again, because I am a secret
21:31
Speaker 1: badass stare. I even managed a sly, psycho-esque grin of
21:36
Speaker 1: my own right back at him before walking off. I
21:40
Speaker 1: don't know why I reacted like that. Generally, challenging someone
21:44
Speaker 1: who might be unbalanced is a dangerous thing to do
21:48
Speaker 1: and wouldn't be my usual approach. Apart from the fact
21:51
Speaker 1: he looked mentally ill at best, possessed at worst, anyone
21:57
Speaker 1: who roams around at night growling has some real scary issues.
22:02
Speaker 1: But just there in the moment, I just instinctively felt
22:05
Speaker 1: the need to stare him down and not show fear.
22:09
Speaker 1: And boy, do I hope my instincts were right. Because
22:13
Speaker 1: I am still stuck here. And despite my bravado, I
22:17
Speaker 1: am in no way a badass. Thankfully, haven't seen him since.
22:23
Speaker 1: In fact, in the two months I've been here, that
22:26
Speaker 1: was the only time I have clapped my eyes on
22:28
Speaker 1: him at all. Despite walking past the boat every other day.
22:33
Speaker 1: I really hope to keep it that way. And as
22:36
Speaker 1: soon as those navigation lights change to signify the river
22:39
Speaker 1: is open again, me and my furry crew are out
22:43
Speaker 1: of here. And to the possessed-looking growling guy, I hope
22:48
Speaker 1: your boat is as clapped out as it looks so
22:51
Speaker 1: that you can't follow.
22:53
Speaker 3: In early 2007, I was on a traveling singing group.
23:00
Speaker 3: that there were eight of us on a team, and
23:01
Speaker 3: the team members were switched every single year. We were
23:05
Speaker 3: invited to stay at the evening at the house of
23:07
Speaker 3: a previous member, named Drew. Drew wasn't home, so it
23:11
Speaker 3: was his mom, his sister, and his brother who hosted us. Now,
23:14
Speaker 3: we'd all known Drew's dad died about four years earlier,
23:17
Speaker 3: but he died of a heart attack.
23:19
Speaker 1: And not in the house.
23:21
Speaker 3: I generally try not to be superstitious, but I went
23:24
Speaker 3: into the house and immediately felt just a little uncomfortable.
23:28
Speaker 3: think I blamed it on the fact that Drew and
23:29
Speaker 3: I never really seen eye to eye or that I
23:32
Speaker 3: felt bad for his mom who'd been widowed so young
23:34
Speaker 3: and left with three children a sleeping space was very
23:38
Speaker 3: limited got put down on a cot in the basement
23:41
Speaker 3: along with the other girl in my team the basement
23:44
Speaker 3: wasn't a creepy basement by any means it had been
23:47
Speaker 3: refinished and was pretty comfortable my cot was only about
23:51
Speaker 3: a foot from the wall and there was a small
23:53
Speaker 3: old digital clock between the wall and the cot I
23:56
Speaker 3: fell asleep in my usual manner facing the wall, back
23:59
Speaker 3: to the room. At 2.48, and I'll never forget the clock,
24:04
Speaker 3: since it was the only thing that I could focus on,
24:06
Speaker 3: I woke up very suddenly. I was immediately frozen in bed.
24:11
Speaker 3: My heart was racing. My throat went tight, and I
24:15
Speaker 3: couldn't swallow. This was primal fear at its best. I
24:19
Speaker 3: couldn't roll over to check, but I swear, even now,
24:23
Speaker 3: that something was standing over me. Everything in my instinct
24:26
Speaker 3: told me not to turn around. It felt like my
24:30
Speaker 3: life was depending on me staying right where I was.
24:34
Speaker 3: During this time of intense fear, I kept seeing images
24:37
Speaker 3: in my mind, flashes of gore and horrible things. I
24:41
Speaker 3: could also hear a laughing in my ears, but not
24:44
Speaker 3: the voice of just one person laughing. It sounded like
24:47
Speaker 3: I was in a room with thousands of voices laughing.
24:51
Speaker 3: I remember for the first time, having suicide run across
24:54
Speaker 3: my mind during this overwhelming, fear-driven time. I should note
24:58
Speaker 3: here that I'm not and I've never been suicidal. When
25:03
Speaker 3: that feeling went away, the last thing I remember hearing
25:06
Speaker 3: in my mind was, not this one. I looked at
25:10
Speaker 3: the clock again, and only nine minutes had passed, the
25:14
Speaker 3: longest-working nine minutes of my life. A few hours later
25:18
Speaker 3: when I got up, I decided I was going to
25:20
Speaker 3: get the hell out of there as quickly as I
25:22
Speaker 3: possibly could. I skipped the shower and breakfast and sat
25:25
Speaker 3: in the van waiting for the rest of my team.
25:28
Speaker 3: As I was waiting, Drew's brother came out and spoke
25:31
Speaker 3: with me. And in one sentence he said, I'm sorry
25:35
Speaker 3: I couldn't help you this morning. As he said it,
25:38
Speaker 3: he had tears in his eyes. He honestly looked like
25:41
Speaker 3: he was going to be sick to me. The look
25:43
Speaker 3: of hopelessness in his eyes still haunts me to this day.
25:47
Speaker 3: Two weeks later, We got word that Drew's brother had
25:50
Speaker 3: killed himself just before 3 a.m. Ever since the incident,
25:55
Speaker 3: I still occasionally will have dreams about that laughing. Part
25:59
Speaker 3: of me wonders if I would have just tried talking
26:01
Speaker 3: to his brother, maybe things would have been different. I
26:05
Speaker 3: never spoke about this to anyone but my husband. Brings
26:08
Speaker 3: back a chill to my spine just writing this down
26:11
Speaker 3: and an overwhelming sense of guilt. I don't know what
26:15
Speaker 3: to make of it or what the hell really happened
26:17
Speaker 3: inside that house. And part of me never wants to
26:20
Speaker 3: know either. This story is from a childhood friend who
26:26
Speaker 3: told me this, and it still unnerves me to this day.
26:30
Speaker 3: She was genuinely freaked out, and her family even backed
26:33
Speaker 3: up her claims. So, here it goes. My friend and
26:36
Speaker 3: her family moved into this rental property, and my friend
26:39
Speaker 3: claimed that it was haunted. Everyone agreed that there was
26:43
Speaker 3: an off feeling, and those who visited or stayed over
26:46
Speaker 3: there would mention it as well. I myself experienced this
26:49
Speaker 3: odd feeling of foreboding whenever I went over there, and
26:53
Speaker 3: believed the consensus that the house was indeed haunted. It
26:56
Speaker 3: honestly felt oppressive inside there, and you would feel this
27:00
Speaker 3: pitiful dread that is hard to compute into words. It
27:03
Speaker 3: was extremely uncomfortable to experience, just to say the least. Anyway,
27:08
Speaker 3: this particular event, and that is the basis of this post,
27:12
Speaker 3: was enough for my friend's family to pack up and
27:14
Speaker 3: stay with relatives until they moved out permanently. On this
27:17
Speaker 3: fateful afternoon, my friend had arrived back home from the park,
27:20
Speaker 3: and heard an argument taking place in the kitchen between
27:23
Speaker 3: her mom and dad. My friend thought this was odd,
27:26
Speaker 3: as both of her parents should be at work, so
27:28
Speaker 3: she called out, Mom? Before unlocking the front door and
27:31
Speaker 3: going inside. My friend said the house felt instantly silent.
27:36
Speaker 3: An uncanny silence, like all the air had been sucked
27:38
Speaker 3: out of the place.
27:40
Speaker 1: It felt stifling. It felt wrong.
27:43
Speaker 3: Then her mom said, Hey, um, we're just in here.
27:47
Speaker 3: My friend was just outside, closed the kitchen door at
27:50
Speaker 3: this point, and froze beyond opening. It was her mother's voice,
27:54
Speaker 3: but there was something off. Like the cadence was missing
27:58
Speaker 3: that made it actually her mother's. It sounded flat and unnatural.
28:02
Speaker 3: My friend decided to bolt back out the front door
28:05
Speaker 3: and wait until her brother came home. She said as
28:08
Speaker 3: she turned back, she saw her mother peering at her
28:11
Speaker 3: from the lounge room window. But it wasn't her mother.
28:16
Speaker 3: The face was the same. Everything was the same, but
28:20
Speaker 3: her face was devoid of anything that actually made it
28:22
Speaker 3: her mother. There was no recognition on her mother's face.
28:26
Speaker 3: There was no indication that she was looking directly at
28:29
Speaker 3: her daughter. There was no emotion in the expression.
28:33
Speaker 2: Nothing.
28:34
Speaker 3: The eyes looked unstaring and utterly blank. My friend screamed
28:38
Speaker 3: and ran down the street to her mother's work and
28:41
Speaker 3: confirmed that she was there this entire time and had
28:43
Speaker 3: never been at home. Initially, my friend's mother reasoned that
28:47
Speaker 3: someone must have broke in, but at a later investigation,
28:51
Speaker 3: it proved nothing had been stolen. The back door was locked,
28:55
Speaker 3: as was the front door when my friend came home.
28:58
Speaker 3: No one could rationalize who my friend saw in the
29:01
Speaker 3: window and why it looked so much like her mother.
29:04
Speaker 3: So that was the deciding factor to nope the fuck
29:08
Speaker 3: out of there and find somewhere else to live. The
29:10
Speaker 3: landlord of the house denied anything like this had happened
29:13
Speaker 3: while they lived there, but did admit that tenants didn't
29:16
Speaker 3: stay long, saying there was something wrong in the house.
29:20
Speaker 3: My friend also told me that she was the only
29:22
Speaker 3: one who actually saw anything definitively sinister inside that house.
29:26
Speaker 3: But her family said they definitely felt an evil presence there,
29:30
Speaker 3: which ultimately manifested into the doppelganger experience that my friend
29:34
Speaker 3: had had. Utterly terrifying.